Phoenicis Praecurrens
by Just another ginge
Summary: Post OotP. AU. Let's just say that things in the life of one Harry James Potter are about to get interesting. Random transformations; a not so snarky Snape and an intrigued headmaster. Something tells me that with the prophecy also hanging over his head, this is going to be one hell of a year for Harry! WARNING: Almost Character death.
1. Chapter 1

**C'est moi! It's me! I have returned to the world of writing FF! I... kinda got a bit too obsessed with reading them and thus left no time for writing... :3. OOOPS! **

**If you hadn't noticed this is a new fic for me. Well, actually it's a year old chapter of a fic that I started on paper, but I actually only got a little further than this chapter. Anyways, I had a burst of inspiration and decided it was high time I actually posted something on this here website! :D So ****_congratulations!_**** You, through the clicking of the title, have won yourself the chance to read this here first chapter! YAY!**

**ENJOY.**

* * *

_**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE GENIUS THAT IS THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE NOT MATTER HARD I TRY. BUT JKR WILL GIVE ME THE RIGHTS BY THE END OF THE WEEK OR SHE IS GOING TO FIND A LARGE COLLECTION OF HAGRID'S PETS IN HER BED!**_

* * *

Harry led on the impossibly thin mattress barely was so much pain. Vernon, for he refused to acknowledge him as his uncle, had, to put it lightly, not liked Moody's warning at the train station. This, combined with a bad week at work, resulted in Dudley being let completely loose on Harry. Nothing happened straight away, oh no, they had to be sure that the 'evil freaks' weren't watching them before they could set their 'Dudders' on the Freak.

But it had been a week without any sign of anyone, so the Dursleys took that as an all clear and hell, for Harry, broke loose. Mere hours after the week mark Harry found himself bloodied, broken and shoved back in the cupboard under the stairs.

"That's all you're getting now, you ungrateful whelp!" Vernon had bellowed when he had been thrown in there, semi-conscious and bleeding profusely from several large wounds.

That was four hours ago and Harry now led close to death. Not quite capable of coherent thought, he struggled to stay awake. His eyelids fluttered shut and just at the moment that Harry was ready to give in to the blackness, he heard a deep voice that sounded uncannily like Sirius' whisper, "Not yet, Harry." and something stirred deep within him. His head stated to ring up until the point that the noise itself was painful, reality slowly returning to him, whilst another sound took over that of the ringing. Harry wasn't sure, but he could have sworn that it was phoenix song that he could hear. But the only phoenix Harry knew was Fawkes, the headmaster's phoenix, and, sure he'd come to Harry's aid in his second year, but that was Hogwarts. What would Fawkes be doing on Privet Drive?

When the music reached its crescendo, Harry felt a warmth grow within the pit of his stomach and a sharp tug from his magic. He followed his instinct and decided to allow the tug to do what it wanted. It tugged again, almost whining at Harry, not unlike a lost puppy. The magic took control and in a golden flash of light Harry felt himself shrink rapidly, his bone structure seemingly melting away into the transformation. The change swept through him and ignited a fire within Harry. He cried out in pain and his cries transformed into song, a phoenixes lament. Harry suddenly stopped in surprise, and so did the phoenix song.

Was he, somehow, making it?

Harry blinked; the pain that had been present when the fire had ignited was gone, but the fire was still present within him. How was that possible? Harry's suddenly serene mind had only had one answer. It was implausible, but with his luck still the most likely option. He had to somehow be a phoenix. A quick movement of his arms was all he needed to check, yes, they were now wings. Didn't phoenixes have healing powers? That would explain the fact that all the pain was gone.

But why was he a phoenix in the first place? Had he stumbled across his animagus form in a time of need? If so, shouldn't he be able to change back?

Harry gave it a go, trying to replicate the feeling that he had felt in reverse.

Nothing.

He screwed his eyes up and tensed his whole body, trying again. He felt something building, getting larger, within him.

**PPPFFFTT!**

Nope; just gas.

Harry cursed under his breath, what was he going to do now? He could hardly stay as a phoenix, Vernon would go spare! It was then that it hit Harry. He was a _phoenix_! What had happened? What should he do? He could hardly stay as a phoenix, but why on earth was he a phoenix in the first place? Harry wracked his brain for an answer but came out empty handed. Suddenly he thought of something, could phoenixes go anywhere they wanted using that flame transportation thing that they did? Harry vaguely remembered Hermione going on about it once after a CoMC lesson last year. But where would Harry go?

The Weasleys were an option. But Harry didn't know if they would know anything about getting Harry back to being human. Hermione could possibly have an idea though. The more Harry thought about it, the more it sounded like the best option. He would go to Hermione and, if she didn't know, she could always go hit the books to find an answer.

However, next Harry had to figure how to actually do that 'flame out' thing. These were the sort of things that were generally useful to know before making big plans.

How does one do it though? Harry closed his eyes and let his mind wander. He could feel a flame within himself. Phoenixes are fire birds, right? Harry supposed this would be his phoenix fire. Harry followed his instinct and, exhaling, let the fire fill him up. He felt as though he was being… tickled? Harry opened his eyes to see flames licking around his feet, but he wasn't feeling any pain. The flames were not burning anything either. But Harry still wasn't being flamed anywhere.

He wracked his brain for any information he might know about magical means of transportation. Didn't sixth years learn to apperated if they were of age? Flaming, as Harry was now calling it, should be similar, they were both disappearing from one place and appearing in another. Perhaps the method was similar. There were, if Harry had heard them correctly, three d's to apparition. What had they been? Harry couldn't remember all of them, but he was sure destination was one of them. That had to be it! All Harry needed to do was concentrate on where he wanted to go.

He closed his eyes again and concentrated on Hermione. Harry didn't know where she lived, but he hoped thinking about her would be enough for flaming. The fire built up within him again and this time, his thoughts centred on his bushy-haired friend, the fire didn't level out, but grew. Harry gave a victorious trill and disappeared from Privet Drive.

* * *

When Harry reappeared he found himself on platform 9 ¾, the last place he had seen Hermione. That wasn't quite right, but at least it had sort of worked! Harry, noticing that his appearance had drawn a little attention from the few people on the platform, closed his eyes and tried flaming again.

* * *

Harry was a little closer this time, appearing somewhere that he had never been before, but Harry assumed that it was a place near wherever Hermione lived, and somewhere she probably frequented. Fortunately it was past the library's closing time, so no muggles had noticed Harry's appearance. Third time lucky. Harry let all of his thoughts of Hermione flow through his brain and tried again.

* * *

This time he appeared in a flash of fire, on the floor and directly in front of one very surprised Hermione. She squeaked at the sight of the phoenix that was Harry and dropped the book that she had been holding. Harry laughed at that, causing Hermione to give him a strange look. She shook her head as if to clear it, pinched herself and gasped. Harry laughed again; Hermione Granger, SPEACHLESS! It certainly was a sight to behold.

"H-Hello," She said timidly, "Why, I- erm… Hi."

Harry gave a trill to comfort her, he didn't know why, but he knew it would calm her down. Hermione was sat in the chair at a messy desk, and, judging by the heavy tome that had crashed to the floor, she had been doing a little bit of 'light reading'. Harry cocked his head to the side for half a second and then concentrated on the space above Hermione's lap and flamed there. It was easier that time, Harry supposed that this was because he could actually see where he wanted to go. Hermione was startled by the phoenix that was suddenly on her lap, but when Harry nudged her hand with his head she started to stroke the feathers on top of it.

Harry was almost purring with delight. He had never imagined how good that could feel. Hermione carried on for a few minutes before stopping.

"Not that I don't like you," She said, "but are you here for a reason?"

Harry cursed mentally, how was he going to explain this to her when he was a (pun not intended) flamin' bird? He attempted talking to Hermione but all that came out was a variety of different chirps and squawks. He whistled in frustration and looked back up at Hermione's face and looked into her chocolate brown eyes.

Hermione gasped.

"Your eyes," She breathed, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, "they're so green! I love them! You know, one of my friends has the same shade. It's uncanny!"

Harry's hopes soared. She recognised his eyes! Trust Hermione to take note of such a small detail and make the needed links. Harry looked around the room for the first time, trying to find something, anything that could help him communicate his dilemma to his friend.

The first thing he noticed was that Hermione's bedroom was, well, Hermione's bedroom. The walls were covered in bookshelves. There was a bed in one corner next to a large window that was flooding the room with the day's last rays of light. What Harry was touched to notice was that any wall space that was not taken up by books was covered by pictures of Harry, Ron and Hermione in various combinations and locations. Half of the pictures Harry hadn't even realised had been taken; but they were there. Where he was perched was, albeit on Hermione's lap, next to a desk which was covered in parchment, what Harry assumed to be many reference books and a large pot of ink was next to what seemed to be a freshly finished essay.

Harry suddenly had a brainwave. He hopped onto the desk with a clumsy flap of his wings, almost tumbling onto the floor. Hermione let out a giggle at Harry's ungraceful landing.

"Need some help there?" she asked after being at the receiving end of Harry's attempt at a glare. But, being a phoenix, it didn't really have much of an effect. Harry waddled over to the inkpot, tapped it with his beak and turned back towards his bushy-haired friend.

"Do you want me to open it?"

Harry bobbed his head up and down in a phoenixy version of a nod. She giggled once again at Harry's antics. Harry was bemused as well, he had never seen Hermione giggle so much and he had a brief thought that she should do so more often. She had a pretty laugh. Harry shook himself from his thoughts as she reached out and unscrewed the ink for him. Harry reached out and plucked a blank piece of parchment from Hermione's pile of it and set it in the centre of the desk. By now Hermione was watching Harry curiously. He dipped his beak into the ink, determined to get his message across. He tapped his beak gently on the edge of the pot to get rid of any excess ink, placed the end of it on the parchment and drew a scratchy line.

Five minutes and a lot of spilt ink later, Harry had written out his short sentence:

* * *

_**I Harry.**_

* * *

Hermione gasped as soon as she realised what Harry was writing. Harry chuckled to himself as he stood back from the piece of parchment. He had managed to shut Hermione up twice within ten minutes. Harry thought that he would not have live to see that day! About a minute later Hermione came out of her stupor.

"I- You…_ Harry?_" She managed to say eventually. Harry nodded in his phoenixy way and, if possible, Hermione's eyes widened even further. "How? A phoenix? But you can't _be_ a magical animagus, but why- I, how?"

Harry pondered how to answer for a second and then swung his head from side to side.

"You don't know?"

Harry nodded.

"Can you… Are you stuck?"

Harry nodded again and then trilled in happiness. Hermione was quite perceptive and he was never happier for it than at that moment.

Hermione suddenly jumped up out of her seat and frantically started pacing, almost hyperventilating at the thought of Harry being stuck as a phoenix forever. "What are we going to do? We need to do something, you can't stay like that! You won't be able to go to school and then you won't learn and you'll be stuck as a bird, which isn't good, and your OWLs will be of no use and you wou-"

"Hermie dear, dinner!" a feminine voice called from downstairs.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione whimpered as her knees gave way and she fell to the floor hyperventilating. Harry started to freak out himself, what does one do with someone who's hyperventilating? He tried to call out "calm down", but all that came out was a trill of phoenix song. He panicked for a few more moments and then mentally kicked himself, he had forgotten that phoenix song could help calm people down. Why he hadn't thought of that in the first place Harry would never know, but he started singing and the effect on Hermione was immediate. Within minutes her breathing rate was back to normal and she was no longer acting like a headless chicken.

Hermione stood up momentarily and flopped herself onto her bed, face in pillow and mumbled, if Harry wasn't mistaken, "That was embarrassing."

Harry, remembering that Hermione had been called for dinner a few minutes previously, flashed over to the brunette, landing on her head. She rolled over and groaned, "What do you want?"

He trilled and pointed towards the door with his beak. As if on cue, the woman, who Harry assumed to be Hermione's mother called up the stairs again, "Hermie, dinner's ready!"

Harry chuckled, what vocalised as a trill, at the nickname and earned himself a glare from the bookworm. Harry promptly shut up, but he couldn't stop the amused twinkle in his eye.

"Coming!" she called back, rolling off of the bed and standing up. She walked over to the door and had her hand on the handle when she suddenly seemed to remember Harry and rushed back over to him.

"You coming?" she asked, holding out an arm for him to hop onto. Harry had assumed that he would be staying in Hermione's room, out of sight. The Dursley's certainly wouldn't want a phoenix anywhere that it could be seen by the neighbours. But if Hermione wanted otherwise, Harry wasn't going to question it, he couldn't physically anyway. He nodded and tried to hop the short distance between the bed and her arm with a small flap of his wings, but failed miserably, falling to the floor in a twisted pile of feathers.

Hermione laughed and then bent down, scooping Harry up into her arms. Harry gave an indignant squawk and tried to wriggle out of her tight grasp. He wasn't a baby! He was a teenage boy… erm phoenix! Harry got free and clambered up onto Hermione's shoulder and huffed. Hermione giggled again and once Harry was comfortably perched she started to make her way downstairs.

However, Hermione was intercepted by her mother halfway down the last flight of stairs.

"Hermione dear- What?" Hermione's mother stood there, slack jawed, "Hermie, _what_ is that?"

Harry gave another laughing trill at the nickname that her mother had given her, he was so going to use that one later.

"Mum! Don't call me that!"

Harry laughed again.

"See!" Hermione cried irately, "Stop encouraging him!"

Her mother smirked, and then remembered her original question, "So who is your friend?"

Harry puffed his chest out importantly and was cuffed round the head by Hermione.

"This birdbrain is Harry, He's a phoenix. Harry, this is my mother Jean."

"He can understand you?"

Harry nodded from atop Hermione's shoulder.

"Hey, don't you have a friend called Harry? Ah, yes isn't he the one that you have a cr-"

"MUM!" Hermione yelled, her cheeks flushed slightly. Harry wondered what Jean had been about to say.

"What? You know that you do, you admitted it to-"

"Mum!" Hermione said firmly, now Weasley red, "This _is_ Harry!"

"Huh?" jean said, sounding completely confused. Harry didn't blame her as he himself had a hard time getting his head around it.

Hermione sighed.

"This," she said, gesturing to him, "is Harry Potter. My green eyed, scruffy haired wizard friend. _I _don't know why, and I don't think he does either, but he's stuck as a phoenix."

She blinked. "Let me get this straight, he turned from a person, into a phoenix?"

"Yup."

"How on earth does that work?"

"Well it doesn't work with magical animals, such as a phoenix, but we can become animagi. As the name roots suggest, this is the use of magic to turn oneself into your inner animal…"

Hermione went on to explain in detail everything she knew about animagi to her mother, and after third year Hermione had done a lot of in depth research on the subject. Harry wouldn't have been surprised, with the amount she knew, if Hermione had actually managed the transformation herself.

It was easy, watching the mother and daughter, to see where Hermione had gotten her curiosity and thirst for knowledge from. But after approximately ten minutes Harry could smell smoke coming from one of the downstairs rooms. He gave a worried squawk to warn them, but when that didn't work Harry squeezed Hermione's shoulder carefully.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked exasperatedly. He had interrupted her mid-flow.

He motioned towards the source of the smell with his head, causing Hermione's mother to cry "My lasagne!" and run to what Harry assumed to be the kitchen to go save her food dish. Harry sniggered mentally, that reaction had been priceless.

* * *

Five minutes later found Harry perched on the back of Hermione's chair, pecking a piece of tinned pineapple. He soon discovered that, being a phoenix, his taste buds were, well, identical to a phoenix's. This said meant that the lasagne, one of Harry's staple favourites, repulsed him to the point of not being able to try it. Hermione voiced many theories and hypothesises on the matter whilst trying to try an edible food for Harry, only shutting up when her mother got fed up of her babbling and told her so.

Hermione's mother had been surprisingly accepting of Harry's situation and, for Harry, it seemed rather strange. Aunt Petunia would have kicked him onto the street without a second thought, even if her precious 'Diddykins' had been the one to bring him in. But Jean had even gone to special lengths to provide for his strange food needs. She seemed enamoured but the wizarding world and everything in it, whilst Petunia hated it.

"So Harry," Jean said, breaking Harry out of his reverie, "what _do_ we do with you?"

Harry had been right, she was going to kick him out. He was just a freak, why would anyone in their right minds want him anyway? Anyone who cared just ended up dead.

"I mean, turning into a phoenix doesn't happen every day. Is there some kind of protocol for this?"

Harry shook his head, mentally sighing with relief. He wasn't about to get kicked onto the street. But Jean did have a point. What were they going to do? Harry thought about the problem for a minute and quickly deduced that the best course of action from here would be to contact the headmaster, but how was he going to tell the grangers that? Harry didn't have an answer to that, so just hoped that Hermione could catch onto the same solution sooner rather than later. He didn't have to wait long.

"Dumbledore!" Hermione suddenly yelled, roughly thirty seconds after Harry had had that thought, "We should tell Headmaster Dumbledore!"

Harry trilled happily, that hadn't taken long at all! Then again, this was Hermione that he was talking about.

However there was still one problem; how does one contact Dumbledore? They could owl him, but that might take days to arrive. Hermione didn't have an owl either so they would have to wait until Ron sent her a letter with Pig. That overexcited puffball was not the quickest or most reliable owl either. As far as Harry could tell they were in quite a pickle.

"-arry, Harry, Harry!" Hermione yelled. Her tone suggested that she had been calling his name for quite a while but had been ignored subconsciously. He shook himself and turned his head towards the witch.

"Could you take this," she said holding up a wad of parchment, "to Dumbledore for me?"

Harry was confused. Why would she ask him? Did he look like a bird? Harry berated himself mentally, of course he looked like a bird; he was one! How was he going to get the letter to him though, he couldn't fly?

Harry's confusion evidently showed on his face as Hermione gave an exasperated sigh and explain to him that he should be able to flame to him, with the letter in his beak, in a fraction of the time that it would take for an owl to fly all the way there.

Harry blinked in surprise. He hadn't thought of that. Hermione had once again seen the answer that had hidden itself in plain sight. He nodded an affirmative, signalling that yes, he would take the letter.

Letter in beak, Harry closed his eyes and let the fire within him consume him. It was much easier this time. It seamed that this skill was one of those that could easily be honed with practice. With thoughts of Hogwart's Headmaster swirling around in his brain, Harry was gone, reappearing miles away in a not-so-empty headmaster's office.

* * *

**So there we have it! The first chapter of Phoenicis Praecurrens! What do y'all think? Bad? Good? Great? LET ME KNOW! I'd love to hear from you, even if the review is only a word long!**

**It wont take long, so leave a review!**

**I shall bid you farewell and leave you with this:**

**Q. Where do you find Dumbledore's Army?**

**A. Up his sleevey! ****_Badum chhhh_**


	2. Chapter 2

**I am back with another chapter of Phoenicis Praecurrens! How lucky are you? VERY! ;)**

**I was very happy with the response I received from y'all for the last chapter. 329 views, 20 followers, 8 favourites and 10 reviews! :D Big thanks to TWiKoLaTe (MY AWESOME FIRST REVIEWER!), FoxGoddess25, Phoenix 5(guest), KiwiClover, badkidoh, Pikachu79, Luvliacd, and the three anonymous guest reviewers!**

**LET US ALL GO SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO HARRY! ( Apart from me... I already know what happens! ;) )**

* * *

_**DISCLAIMER: I HAD A FEW PROBLEMS SOURCING HAGRID'S PETS, SO JKR GETS AWAY WITH IT THIS TIME... WHICH MEANS I STILL DO NOT OWN THE GENIUS THAT IS THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE! D': **_

* * *

"Human speech"

ˠPhoenix Speechˠ

* * *

Someone, who looked to have been sitting in one of the chairs to Harry's left, was on the floor with a startled look on her face; her hair cycling from pink to red, then orange, and back to pink again. Of course this person was none other than Nymphadora Tonks, a Metamorphmagus and extremely clumsy.

Harry looked around the headmaster's office, only to find that he was in some form of large meeting room instead. Harry assumed, seeing as it looked nothing like any of the rooms in Grimmauld place and the astonished faces around him being people he knew to be order members, that this was the new headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. The room was large; about the length of 4 Privet Drive twice, about seven metres wide and modestly decorated. Down the centre of the room, a large oval table sat and it was said table that Harry had landed in the centre of.

Harry was being regarded with looks of awe an astonishment from the whole table, apart from Professor Dumbledore, and Snape of course, the latter sat to the left of the former. Harry attempted to hop over to the aged wizard, but failed spectacularly, falling over and pushing multiple piles of paperwork everywhere. This caused a cacophony of laugher to come from most of the people in the room. Harry huffed and glared at them angrily, but that just made them laugh harder.

Harry's eyes twinkled as he started to formulate a plan. Staring at his destination Harry disappeared from the room, reappearing atop one Severus Snape's head. From his new perch, which had frozen as soon as he had landed on it, he stuck out his leg towards Dumbledore who took the letter. Harry started playing with Snape's hair with his beak, shocking some of the people gathered, Snape being one of them, and amusing others such as Dumbledore and Prof- Remus.

Dumbledore opened the letter and scanned its content before going slack-jawed, looking between the letter and the phoenix a couple of times before a small smile settled on his face, eyes twinkling. Dumbledore held eye contact with Harry who bowed, pulled out one of Snape's hairs, and flamed back to the Granger household; leaving behind a scowling Snape, a smiling Dumbledore and an intrigued Order.

* * *

"Harry!" Hermione cried as soon as he appeared, "How did it go?"

Harry, who had gotten the hang of nodding by now, did so. Jean and Hermione both sighed with relief and Hermione flopped herself down onto the sofa, scooping Harry, who dropped Snape's hair, up in the process. She placed Harry on her lap and started stroking the top of his head. Harry purred with contentment; he could certainly get used to that feeling!

The three sat in a comfortable silence, apart from the occasional purr of contentment from Harry, for a good ten minutes before they heard the sound of a car pulling into the drive.

"That must be Dan." Jean muttered, "I had wondered where he had gotten to so late."

The front door opened and a man, who Harry assumed was Hermione's father and this Dan person, shouted, "I'm home dear, sorry I'm late but there was an emergency at the clinic."

"We're in the living room!" Hermione yelled.

Footsteps could be heard in the hall as Dan took of his coat and shoes and walked into the room. Daniel Granger looked to be absolutely shocked by what he saw in front of him. Harry didn't blame him. If he had walked into the living room at Privet Drive to see Dudley and Petunia cuddling a magical creature he would have thought himself crazy. Dan blinked twice and then looked to Hermione.

"Is that a phoenix? How did you get one, I thought they were incredibly rare?" It seemed that Jean wasn't the only one Hermione inherited her intellect from.

"This is Harry." Jean told him.

"Harry? Isn't that guy that Hermione li-"

"Dad!" Hermione screeched, "Shut up!"

"But, you-"

Jean laughed. "That's what I thought to, love. But this is Harry! Harry Potter; the Wizard."

A look of sheepish realisation made its way onto Dan's face, but that wasn't what Harry was focused on. Here he was 'Harry the wizard'. No boy-who-lived or the-chosen-one. For the first time in his life he was just Harry. No expectations, no pressure, no weird stares, just acceptance. The mere idea was strange to him. Everywhere he went there was someone's expectations to live up to: The Dursley's non-freakishness; his primary school teacher's stupid kid; Hogwarts's hero; the wizarding world's saviour. The list was endless.

But these people didn't expect anything of him. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to act? Would he actually be allowed to be himself? No. That would be silly. Harry would just have to toe the invisible line until he crossed it. At least then he would know where he stood.

Harry jerked himself out of his thoughts to find everyone staring at him. Harry instinctively shuffled backwards and buried his head in Hermione's clothes, hyperventilating slightly.

"Harry, there's no need to be shy, it's just my dad." Hermione whispered to him, stroking the feathers on his head. After a few moments Harry slowly uncurled himself from his little hidey-hole and ducked his head slightly in embarrassment. Could phoenixes have panic attacks? Evidently so.

Dan opened his mouth to say something, but before he could utter a word there was a knock on the door. Dan turned around from being stood in the doorway and went to open the door. Harry heard some muffled conversation commence in the hall before Dan then returned with someone else in tow.

As soon as Hermione saw who it was she was up on her feet, wand at the old wizard's neck.

"Hermione!" Jean cried, "That's not how you treat a guest!"

"One moment mum." Hermione replied calmly, "If this is really Dumbledore he will know what he told Harry he saw at Christmas in first year and where he saw it."

Dumbledore chuckled. "It's quite alright Mrs Granger. Your daughter is quite smart to check that I am who I appear to be. I believe that I told Harry I saw myself holing a pair of socks in the Mirror of Erised as everyone always gives me books at Christmas."

Hermione stepped away from the headmaster with a nod and settled back onto the sofa with Harry once again perched on her lap. Once everyone had taken a seat and the lemon drops had been offered and declined Dumbledore started to speak.

"I was rather intrigued when I received your letter Miss Granger. I do not think that this particular event has happened before in history, and thus I have absolutely no idea of what to do to turn him back."

Harry's stomach dropped, even Dumbledore didn't know what had happened to him. He was going to be stuck like this forever. Harry gave a mournful sigh.

"This said, it may not be impossible to turn him back. However this will take rather a lot of research and time."

Harry perked up immediately at this and gave a small trill.

"But sir, what's going to happen to Harry in the meantime? I mean, someone's going to question Harry's random disappearance if it takes longer than the summer. Where's Harry going to stay?" Hermione asked. Jean and Dan both nodded in seeming agreement with the question.

Dumbledore stroked his beard in thought. "In this situation I think that it would be prudent for Harry to stay as near to Hogwarts as possible. No offence intended, but this is a muggle neighbourhood and if Harry is spotted…"

Hermione nodded in understanding.

"Would he stay with you then?" Jean asked.

"Me? Oh no, having one phoenix is quite rare. Two would be quite a spectacle and bring unwarranted attention to young Harry here. Harry would stay with a trusted member of the faculty, -"

Those words alone, said in that tone of voice made dread settle in the base of Harry's stomach. He could only be referring to one person. Dumbledore couldn't be suggesting that he stay with-

"-Professor Snape."

"No!" Harry tried to bellow, but all that came from his mouth was an angry squawk. He couldn't be shipped off to Snape, the guy hated him! Harry would be rendered down for potion ingredients within the hour! No one in their right minds would make anyone live with the snarky git. Then again according to the daily prophet both he and Dumbledore had been bonkers for the last year. Maybe Dumbledore was still suffering from bouts of insanity. Harry let out a stream of angry squawks, getting more and more worked up with the headmaster.

"Maybe it would be prudent of me to call Fawkes so that Harry can participate in this conversation." Dumbledore mused. Hermione nodded eagerly.

A moment later there was a flash of fire as Dumbledore's phoenix flamed into the Granger's living room. The first thing that Harry noticed was that Fawkes was huge in comparison to him. Harry attributed that to the fact that Fawkes was probably centuries old whilst Harry was a mere fourteen years of age.

ˠGreetings young one.ˠ said a mellow voice that Harry did not recognise. Was it speaking to him? Harry deduced that it must have been Fawkes. Wait, he could speak to other phoenixes? Of course he could. Phoenixes had to be able to understand and communicate with each other, they were of the same species!

ˠH-Helloˠ Harry said, all of a sudden shy.

ˠAlbus tells me that you are one of the students, is that truth?ˠ

ˠY-Yeah, I'm Harry, Harry Potter.ˠ

As soon as he said this Fawkes burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Harry huffed sadly, this wasn't funny. He was being laughed at once again for who he was. It was a good few minutes before Fawkes gained control of himself. He flew over to Harry, who was on the arm of the sofa, and nudged Harry with his wing.

ˠIt is always you, is it not.ˠ

ˠYou don't know the half of it.ˠ Harry mumbled.

Fawkes nudged him again, this time with his beak. ˠDo not fret young one, there is reason for the occurrence of all things, you may not see the reason, but it is there.ˠ

Fawkes just had to be just as philosophical as his wizened wizard, didn't he? But of course, Fawkes didn't, wouldn't, couldn't understand him in the slightest. Harry mumbled an affirmative, but evidently Fawkes saw through him.

ˠWhat is wrongˠ he asked. Harry scoffed at the question.

ˠWhat's wrong you ask. What's wrong? Hello, boy-who-lived-to-evidently-be-a-phoenix here!ˠ

ˠThere must be a good reas-ˠ

ˠReason!ˠ Harry shouted, finally breaking under all the stress he had undergone in the last 24 hours, ˠIf that's true then there must be a good reason why Voldemort's back, why I have to become a murderer. Oh and there must be such a delightful reason why I was left with the Dursleys and grew up with no friends, and hand-me-down clothes, and, and hardly being fed, and the cupboard under the stairs as my bedroom, and, and why I'm such, such a, a FREAK!ˠ

Harry was seething by this point, what right did Fawkes have telling him there was a 'reason for everything'? Stupid phoenix. Harry closed his eyes and screamed in exasperation.

A shockwave of energy suddenly burst from him. Harry opened his eyes to see various things around the room alight. Professor Dumbledore's wand was in hand instantly and putting out the flames and repairing that which was in need of repair silently.

Harry gulped, he was so in for it. The Grangers were going to kill him. He had definitely crossed the invisible line. He was so more than dead. He felt Fawkes go to put his wing upon Harry's shoulder but before he could do so Harry involuntarily flinched away.

ˠI will not harm you child.ˠ Fawkes mournfully trilled. Before he could blink Harry found himself scooped up and engulfed in a warm cocoon of feathers, only the top of his head peeping out of the top. It was rather comfortable and combined with Fawkes's singing calmed Harry down almost immediately. Jean giggled. It was a few minutes before the next person spoke.

"Now," Dumbledore interrupted the rather awkward silence that had descended upon the inhabitants of the room, "I believe we have a… matter to discuss."

"But sir, how will Fawkes help you talk to Harry?" Hermione asked, and honestly Harry was quite curious as to the answer as to the answer himself. Sure he could talk to Fawkes, but could Dumbledore?

"With Fawkes being my familiar we share a telepathic bond-" Dumbledore started.

"And so he can understand Harry and then tell you!" Dan exclaimed, interrupting the headmaster, "That's amazing!"

"Precisely. Now Harry, what was your objection from earlier?" He asked. Harry couldn't draw up enough energy to be angry anymore.

ˠSnape hates me.ˠ he said simply. Evidently this message was passed on as Dumbledore spoke in immediate response.

"I'm sure he doesn't my boy."

ˠHa! With all due respect sir, he does hate me. He always has. I'd show you pensive mem'ries if I were human, but Hermione could prob'ly show you some of it.ˠ

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm sorry Harry, but Severus is the only one in the castle who doesn't have a familiar. Anyone else would be suspicious.

That did make sense, no one had had more than one familiar since Merlin himself. He needed the protection of Hogwarts, and if Snape was the only one without a familiar… curse Dumbledore's infallible logic.

ˠFine. Just don't,-ˠ Harry stopped and yawned. ˠ-don't tell him that I'm, well, me.ˠ

"Wonderful!" Dumbledore said, clapping his hands, "That's settled then."

"Excuse me sir." Dan said hesitantly, "What's happened?"

Dumbledore started to explain the previous conversation but Harry didn't hear much of the explanation as he drifted off to sleep in his warm cocoon. The last thing he heard was Fawkes voice telling him that he would be having words with Albus for him, but the words didn't register in Harry's somnolent brain as it entered the land of Nod.

* * *

Harry's dream consisted of flying over a great landscape from a bird's point of view. Harry supposed it was a rather good dream, much better than anything involving Voldemort. He soared over mountains and lakes and eventually landed in front of a ginger girl of about 16 that looked nothing like Ginny. He had spotted the hair from the air and decided to go investigate. The girl looked incredibly like… Lily! His mother! Harry had so much he wanted to ask her, but before he could the dream started to fade.

"Give Sev a chance my son." She said. She was fading away. He couldn't leave her now! Harry reached out to grab onto her, but the hem of her jumper slipped through his fingertips.

* * *

ˠMum!ˠ

Harry woke with a start but found he could not move. He was entangled in hair. Brown hair. Harry thought about that for a moment and then panicked, wondering why on earth he was stuck in hair! Harry scooted around so that he might be able to see the face owner of these soft entangling locks; only to do a double take when he saw them.

He was in bed with Hermione Granger! Granted, he was a phoenix, but still, he was in her bed! Harry couldn't believe it. Harry smiled. He could get used to waking up to that view. He shook those thoughts out of his head and then realised that he was both still a phoenix and incredibly comfy snuggled in his den of hair. He toyed with his options of panic or stay where he was and chose the former. Harry wriggled slightly into Hermione's hair to get comfy and sighed contently.

A giggle came from in front of him and Harry's eyes snapped open in surprise, Hermione was awake! Harry gave a soft trill.

"Good morning to you too Harry." Hermione made a move to get up, but Harry wanted to stay where he was. The puppy-dog eyes were surprisingly more effective as Hermione quite easily gave in to staying right where she was. Harry cooed in contentment, Hermione's hair made for a very comfortable night's sleep. He could spend all day curled up in her bird's nest of a morning hairdo. Harry started giggling at that thought, it really was a bird's nest with him in it! It took him a good few minutes to calm himself down and he could see Hermione giving him a very amused look.

ˠWhat?ˠ He said and then stuck his tongue out at her. She giggled and did the very mature thing of sticking her tongue out in retaliation. Harry was momentarily distracted by the musical sound of the laughter, in which Hermione took the chance to grab him and attempt to untangle him from her hair. Unfortunately Harry panicked as he was turned upside down and somehow ended up even more entangled in the hair. She yelped and Harry realised what had happened was hurting Hermione and so froze. He chirped worriedly and waited for Hermione to start yelling.

What he didn't expect was for her to start laughing her head off. Harry blinked in confusion. It was a few moments before things registered in his head. He started chuckling and before long there was a knock at the door. Jean came in to find the two of them almost wetting themselves with laughter, grabbed a camera from atop one of the bookshelves and took a few pictures of the laughing friends.

"What are we going to do with the two of you?" she asked fondly.

"Please mum, help!" Hermione asked pouting.

"Well, really I should just leave you there to untangle yourselves…" She said, turning and starting to walk out of the room.

"Mum, you know you're really not very good at bluffing."

"I know, come here you two!"

* * *

Ten minutes later Harry finally found himself detangled from the bushy brownness and being carried downstairs by Jean whilst Hermione got changed. Jean was babbling on about something to do with a production of some ballet that Hermione had been in when she was six whilst digging through an old box of video tapes. All Harry could do was smirk; other people's parents were the best source of blackmail material in the world! Granted he wouldn't actually use it properly against her, but it would be good for playful teasing purposes.

Jean was just placing the video in the video player when Hermione walked into the room, fresh clothes and hair now up in a high ponytail.

"What's that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh nothing," Jean replied, "just a short video that Harry wanted to watch."

Hermione looked over towards Harry and took in the huge box of home movies he was sat on.

"Mum!" She screeched, crossing the room and snatching the video out of Jean's hands. "I can't believe you!"

Harry snickered, half disappointed that he didn't get to see the video. But there would be other opportunities to get blackmail material on the bookworm soon enough.

"Oh, by the way Harry, You'll need to flame to Snape at about midday today. He'll be at the headmaster's office then talking to Dumbledore." Hermione said, pointedly ignoring her mother.

That comment immediately put Harry on edge. He was leaving so soon? Harry supposed that it made some sense as the longer he was here, the further chance there was of him being seen by a muggle, but that did not mean that he wanted to leave his friend to go live with the greasy git.

"You'll have to convince him to look after you though. Fawkes might be of some help there. And-" Hermione started babbling on about various plans she had thought up to try and get Snape to take Harry in, but each was more ridiculous than the last. Harry flamed himself onto Hermione's shoulder and nudged her neck with his head to try and get across his message that everything would be fine. Hermione smiled and stroked that spot on his head that he adored. Harry couldn't help but start cooing in happiness.

A thought suddenly made its way through the haze in his brain, if he had to leave at noon, how long was it till then. Harry flamed atop Hermione's head, startling her slightly, and looked around the room for a clock. However one was no to be seen apart from a small watch on Hermione's wrist. Harry clambered back onto Hermione's shoulder and trilled towards the hand. A look of confusion made its way onto both Hermione and Jean's face.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione's mother asked.

Harry tapped his wing a couple of inches away from the tip with his beak twice. Both humans looked nonplussed for a few moments before a look of realisation appeared simultaneously upon both faces.

"It is half past eleven Harry. We slept in far too long this morning," Hermione answered after looking at her watch, "I'm normally up hours before now!"

Harry's eyes opened in shock. The time meant he only had half an hour left with Hermione for perhaps the rest of the summer! Hermione must have felt him suddenly tense as she continued stroking his head in what appeared to be an attempt to distract him. The truth was that it worked, although Harry would fervently deny it when later asked.

Before Harry knew it the half an hour had past and it was time for him to go. With a mournful trill at their parting Harry bode Jean and Hermione farewell, closed his eyes and concentrated on flaming to his destination; the desk in the headmaster's office. Harry disappeared in a flash of fire, not knowing what to expect on the other end.

* * *

**So there we are, Harry has to go stay with Snape. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? Well... I don't know, I haven't written it yet! ;)**

**All proceeds go to a good cause.**

**By proceeds I mean reviews.**

**And when I say good cause I mean my happiness!**

**So h****ow was it? Good? Bad? Amazing? Rubbish? LET ME KNOW! It only has to be a couple of words, it'll take you two minutes but will make my day!**

** do you call a sick Dark Lord?**

**A. Lord Coldemort! ****_Badum chhhh_**


End file.
